Chương 19: Chapter Eighteen - MIU

Having the connection in her mind was weird. It took her a moment to figure it out, but almost as soon as it was in place--a procedure that was surprisingly painless--she felt... closer to her friends. Alexis stared at first one servitor, then the other. Then she closed her eyes and spun around on a heel once. Even with the spin and her eyes closed, she was pretty sure she could point to where they were.

"Weird," she muttered.

"The Strategic Command Neural System taps into your natural proprioceptive abilities and expands upon them. You will now be aware of any friendly system, as well as any enemies noticed by such friendly systems."

"That's... really cool," she said before giggling. When she focused on 054-648 she had a vague sensation of tiredness, some slight feeling like he was bruised, and a pretty clear idea that his ammo was half depleted. The last was the strangest, since it triggered the same way a half-full bladder might, but not. She played around with the feeling a little more, then ordered her servitors around.

It was when she wanted K84-321 to come to her and he turned and started to wobble over before she had asked that she discovered how potent her MIU was. Alexis licked her lips.

"That was... did I just order him with my brain?"

"You asked by sharing the impression. It is not as potent as a direct order. In combat, there may be times where impressions are faster than direct orders. Of course, the system you have isn't meant for small teams like this."

"It's not?" she asked.

"No. That would be more akin to a tactical implant. Strategic level implants are meant for battlefields with more moving parts than two and a half servitors."

"Oh, right, of course," she said. She gulped.

"Well... uh, let's get going, then?" She thought to her friends, then held back a nervous giggle as they started to move towards the exit. Alexis continued to plot as she walked down a long corridor, then went up and made her way into one of the ship's primary travel arteries. The space had long, tall corridors. To one side was a tram that menials could board to carry them from one end of the ship to another.

At the moment, that service was shut down, so she started to walk down a passageway large enough for an Imperial Knight to stomp through. As she moved, she saw groups of people doing the same, some walking with a confused trudge, but others were moving with alacrity. There were entire squads of soldiers zipping by in these long, low-to-the-ground four-wheeled open cars that had rows of seats in the back.

A few people were arguing as well, and as she moved, she could make out more directions being blurted over loudspeakers, but most didn't apply to her. There was a loud series of warnings in lingua-technis at some point, but her Binharic was so poor she could barely make sense of it. Eventually she made it close to the entrance down to Deck QG2-5. From there, she went down only to discover a barricade was set up, guarded by a few nervous enforcers.

Some of them looked half-dressed, like they had been called to duty with no time to prepare, which was probably not far from accurate. She had to state her name and business, but being a Tech Acolyte with some servitors got her through. She even managed to question them about what was going on.

"It's bad down there," the officer in charge said.

"Those mutants in revolt? For whatever reason they're pushing real hard to get to the comms station or whatever is down there. We heard that they've been pushing in other places too, but... yeah, they've left us alone here. Saw a few, but they just ran right past." That was strange. She made note of it, then continued on her way after bowing and thanking the enforcers. The passages here were entirely new to her, but that wasn't too surprising.

A ship, even a small one like The Broken Scale, had enough passages, tunnels and vents that she could explore them her entire life and still have more left to find. Still, she pushed forwards, then paused as she rounded a corner. A small sign hung off a wall that read QG2-5 Comms with an arrow pointing to the right. Below that was the splattered remains of a tech priest, his fleshy parts spread across the wall. Alexis gasped, hands covering her mouth before she looked around and noticed more signs of combat.

There were scorch marks on the walls and several dozen bodies spread out on the ground. She felt a twist in her stomach when she felt glad that none of them seemed alive. Most of the bodies were wearing the threadbare garb of menials, though a few were wearing voidsman armour. Licking her lips, she moved forwards, eyeing the corridor at both ends, but it was quiet. She knelt by the tech priest and shifted the body around, then grabbed her dataslate and checked. The name that came up was unfamiliar to her.

She sighed, then gestured K84-321 forward. He picked up the body, carefully holding it up in one pneumatic hand. The man was dead, yes, but the machine integrated into his flesh remained. There were rites to perform. The flesh would be excised from the holy machines woven into him. These would be donated to the deserving, foremost among these: friends, apprentices, and masters of the deceased. His skull was... not intact enough to serve.

It was a little rude, but she decided not to touch the implants that had been in his head and which were now stuck to the wall. She decided not to think too much about it. Death scared her. Something made her spin around, and she discovered 054-648 pointing his rivet gun at a body. It was only when it moved again that she saw why. Only that wasn't a genestealer. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

She crossed the corridor, then gasped and knelt again, this time next to someone alive.

"Hey, hey, calm down," she muttered as she turned a servitor over. A combat servitor. There weren't very many of those on the ship. This one thrashed and kicked, but its leg was bent all wrong and its gun arm was crushed and broken. Alexis pulled her dataslate closer, then issued a command through it. The servitor calmed and stopped its thrashing. She was just lucky that whoever was in command of this unit, they had used the ship's standard encryption.

"054-648, help them up, please?" she asked.

"We'll bring them with us as we move forward. Don't worry, um... CS-3-2/11, we'll get you back on your, uh, foot in no time!" Soon they were moving again, down a slight ramp, then into a corridor where massive wires as thick as her head passed overhead, each one so potent with motive force that just passing below made her hair rise. Finally, they came upon a large antechamber. Wide, slightly taller than average, and ending in a set of bulkhead doors.

COMMUNICATIONS - SECONDARY was scrawled across the doors in thick, gothic lettering. The ground here was covered in sticky-wet blood, much of it swept forwards, as though the bodies that ought to have been here were dragged into the room ahead. Alexis moved closer with some trepidation, her servitors behind her, then she glanced up at a wall-mounted pict recorder before shrugging and giving the door a firm knock.

It took several seconds, so long that she was almost going to knock a second time, but then the door was slammed open and Alexis gasped a moment before something stuck out and grabbed her around the neck, clamping there and holding her in place. She stared with wide eyes into the glowing green lens of a tech priest, one standing before a half-dozen voidsmen with raised lasrifles. They scanned the space behind her, then the lensed eyes returned their full focus onto her.

"Who are thou, to interrupt my sacred duty?" Alexis squirmed and reached up, touching the mechadendrite that held her by the neck. She could hardly breathe, let alone speak. The red-robed figure holding her stared for a moment longer, then let go, and she collapsed, coughing.

"Speak. I demand it." Alexis cleared her airway, then touched her neck where she was certain a bruise was forming.

"I'm... Alexis Lambda-3. I work for the Servitor Overseer. I heard you, ah, needed help?" She looked up, taking in the figure that had grabbed her, then she gulped again. She didn't need her dataslate to read this one. High Transmechanic Dracovos. The man towered above her, a dozen mechadendrites shifting around and behind him. He was a large, corpulent man, with still-fleshy arms that stuck out of a metallic sphere that was his main body.

His back was covered in a large case with several antennae and a small dish that spun in lazy circles.

"I did not call thee to assist," he said in a low hiss, his voice interpolated through a vox machine that made up the lower half of his face.

"I'm sorry," Alexis said.

"I just--""You just indeed," he replied before looking past her.

"Enter. Now. Before the enemy makes use of your foolish behaviour." He stomped away, and she stumbled after him. The secondary communications relay was a massive room built around a singular large machine. An antenna, one that she knew from pict recordings protruded out of the bottom of the ship for several dozen metres. Cogitator banks covered the walls, and there were several stations currently occupied by transmechanics and tech acolytes. To one side was a heap of genestealer corpses taller than she was.

"What's happening here?" she asked.

"Do not presume yourself to hold the right to question," Dracovos snapped.

"Who sent you?"

"No one, sir," she replied quickly before bowing.

"I heard that you needed assistance from the Voidsmen-at-arms and since I was free, I--""Silence. Your communication soils the air." He turned then beheld the bodies her servitors were carrying.

"Explain these." She swallowed.

"The servitor is injured but repairable," she said.

"It was taken out of duty in a fight against the genestealers. The priest... I found him in the same place."

"And you imagined yourself due for a reward, perhaps a sampling of the machines he no doubt slaved to procure for himself?" he asked.

"No, no sir!" she said with a shake of her head.

"I find that unlikely," he said.

"I have little time for upstart acolytes." Firming up her bravery for a moment, Alexis stood up straight and tall.

"I'm just trying to help," she said, then before he could interrupt, she continued.

"I'm here to repair any damaged servitors."

"We will have plenty of new servitors soon," he scoffed.

"Made of the irrecuperable injured from this incident. Perhaps made of upstart Tech Acolytes as well." She swallowed again. Her throat was feeling a little better, at least.

"I'm going to do my duty, even if it bothers you, sir. When the genestealers return, I'll help as well." He stared, then scoffed and turned away.

"Do not be in my way. You will serve me for a year after this. Your service as repayment for my lost time." She didn't agree to that, instead choosing retreat as the greater form of valour. She scampered off to the side, her servitors following. There was a space reserved for the dead on their side, and that is where she placed the tech priest. She noticed a few destroyed servitors there as well. She'd use those. Their parts going to repair her friends.

And then she'd prove just how useful she could be, even if she wanted to do nothing more than curl up into a ball and cry a little.